Sanctuary (114)

[BruceDickinson]

I wonder if I should watch the episode a 5th time, as I didn't see anything even similar to what you are talking about.

Force themselves on a planet? They weren't forcing anybody, they were discussing a treaty...

Holier than thou attitude? Once again haven't a clue as to what you are referring to...any examples?

McKay's Manifest Destiny? - Yet again I am perplexed as to what you mean by this...at no time did McKay suggest that we simply go ahead and send people there for sanctuary. Want to give an example of how you see Manifest Destiny in any part of this episode, especially in McKay.

McKay acting like their god? - What?!? Now I know you have to be watching a different episode. There was no part or dialog at all in the episode that made McKay act like he was a god to the people on the planet. He did express his dislike for their religion...but then again he's a scientist and he's McKay

Initial contacts - I myself am not religious but once again I am unsure of your complaint about inital contacts. Sheppard, Teyla and Ford I thought were doing an outstanding job of trying to be understanding to their culture. Even setting aside logic to make it easier to communicate. McKay, well he spoke his mind. Which is something I have come to expect and like about McKay.

Maybe this is what you meant by all of those other comments, McKay spoke his mind throughout this entire episode. About their religion, the notion of a weapon on the planet, and finally about Chaya! IS this what you meant?

Ace

You maybe should watch this episode 5 or 6 more times because you obviously have a comprehension problem. First, you practically flame an admitted first time poster, (thanks for that schmucko) then you proceed to blunder about in your response.

I had nothing but good intentions in coming to this board but if moronic responses like this is all I can expect I will stick to posting on other forums.

They weren't forcing anybody, they were discussing a treaty...

HAHAAAAA!!! If you had any understanding of what Manifest Destiny was, then me and you could share a laugh here, but alas, you have no hope. Lets ask Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Cochise, Big Foot and some other Indian Chiefs how honorable these "treaties" you speak of are. You make me laugh, but in an "at you" kind of way.

Here's what I said:

McKay acting like their god was a joke was pretty disturbing

To which you replied:

McKay acting like their god? - What?!?

What I WAS refering to was how McKay took their religious nature they openly displayed as if it were something to scoff at, I never said McKay actually acted like their god. You have shown you ineptitude when it comes to reading comprehension, so I can only assume that same problem haunts you when you watch programs on TV.

If you watch the show and actually pay attention, you will see that on several occasions McKay was very offensive and like I originally stated, I would hope the "best of the best" would be able to interact with aliens they meet for the first time in a more sophisticated manner.

Thanks for the warm welcome Ace.

I would have never made a post like this were it not for the insulting way in which you replied to me, so think about that before you start flaming back chum.

[ShadowMaat]

Why is it appallingly stupid? Historicly flirting/romance has worked very well sometimes in diplomacy and negotations. (this question is curiosity not a critical one)

You are allowed to believe anything you like. Personally, I think that romance/flirting has absolutely NO PLACE in ANY type of serious negotiations and while you maintain that it doesn't have to lead to sex, that's a level of subtlety that can be hard to define from person to person, nevermind across cultures or even SPECIES.

This has NOTHING to do with "sex outside of marriage". Puh-LEASE. I see it as being extremely disrespectful of the situation and of the people involved. I see it as stupid and arrogant and incredibly, OBVIOUSLY (in the context of the ep) hormonally driven.

Nothing you say will ever convince me otherwise and I have no desire to discuss it further.

[SmartFox]

Yeah, I'm also having a harder and harder time believing that the wraithe beat the ancients. Especially since a single jumper seems to trump three or four wraithe ships.

They only had a couple jumpers where the Wraith had tons upon tons of darts. Spoilers SGA Underground

Spoiler:

Didnt they find out that there were 40 something hive ships in their sector of Pegasus galaxy alone.

And a jumper cant take out a hive ship.

[ShadowMaat]

I don't get people's comments about McKay being a jerk.

He definitely had some good points, it's more how he COMMUNICATED those points that people find objectionable. As I said before, McKay at his worst is never as bad as he was in Sanctuary... with the possible exception of him in 48 Hours, but he's grown a lot since then and I still find it out of character for him to behave that way.

Same goes for Shep.

[Erik Bloodaxe]

Yeah, I'm also having a harder and harder time believing that the wraithe beat the ancients. Especially since a single jumper seems to trump three or four wraithe ships.

Remember Rising? That ancient mentioned that they were defeated because there were overconfident and outnumbered; the Puddle Jumpers may be able to take out Wraith darts 5:1, but hardly helpful if they're outnumbered 10:1 or more.

-Bloodaxe

[Erik Bloodaxe]

I've said it before, I'll say it again: whoever wrote this ep has absolutely NO CONCEPT of what the characters are really like. McKay was wildly out of character, basically a parody of himself, and Shep was almost as bad.

As a poster on my own board put it, McKay's an arrogant man who tends to think he's always right and belittles those he thinks are wrong. So how was this out of character from that?

There was some interesting stuff in this ep, but it was buried under smarm, cheesiness and melodrama to the point where it's barely worth the trouble to try and find the "good bits". IMO, this was one of the worst eps of the season and I hope they don't let this writer out of the closet very often. He does awful things to the characters.

Seeing as how it seems he's only written this single episode, my guess is he's not exactly one of their regulars.

-Bloodaxe

[ShadowMaat]

As a poster on my own board put it, McKay's an arrogant man who tends to think he's always right and belittles those he thinks are wrong. So how was this out of character from that?

*sigh* There are degrees of arrogance, degrees of belittling and degrees of sarcasm. If you can't understand that much then there is no feasible way for me to explain the difference.

[Bobthespirit]

That was a great line in The Eye.

"In case you haven't been paying attention, I'm an extremely arrogant man!"

McKay's not really strong on social graces. When he disagrees with somebody his first impulse is to get in their face and hostily explain why they're wrong. But I didn't see this as any more prominent in this episode than in another Classic Trek-esque episode, the '25 year old sacrifice' one which I forgot the name of.

[Erik Bloodaxe]

Well after they ascended they could have wiped them out and saved the pegusus galaxy, but that would have been braking the rules...never mind.

Spoiler:

here's the link to what the paper said:
The Ascended Times

LMAO (at that spoiler link). Is that what it really said, or is some of that made up?

-Bloodaxe

[Erik Bloodaxe]

*sigh* There are degrees of arrogance, degrees of belittling and degrees of sarcasm. If you can't understand that much then there is no feasible way for me to explain the difference.

48 Hours: "You are a certified whackjob, and so are all the rest of you if you even listen to her!" Yes, degrees. Which degree does that make McKay? :-P

No misunderstanding here; I was just pointing out that McKay tends to be rather more blatant than yourself, and in the path of character development it's not uncommon for people to slip into a previous frame of mind once in a while, and that seemed to be the case here (perhaps out of frustration of having not yet found any help against the Wraith); and for the record, his "slip" wasn't quite as bad as Hammond's backward slip during "Spirits" in which he should've learned a whole lot more by that point.

Oh, and as a final comment, that arrogance and belittling nature that makes McKay overly annoying and unbearable at times is also what makes him such fun at other times; it really just depends on whether or not you agree w/ him at the time, and this just wasn't one of those times. But when he's belittling someone like Koyla, then it's fun.

-Bloodaxe

[Angelique]

LMAO (at that spoiler link). Is that what it really said, or is some of that made up?

-Bloodaxe

Spoiler:

I'm pretty sure they didn't make any of that up,Loved the part about the exploding cat LOL!

[FoolishPleasure]

This certainly wasn't the brightest episode I've ever seen. Folks may like Chaya because she is "hot" but I found her a bit disturbing. She certainly didn't want any advancement amongst her people. She was ruling a totally stagnant civilization and she had no intention of allowing her people to expand, learn, or grow in any way. Does she have "control" problems?

Rodney had issues with her, so did Beckett, but Weir didn't listen to either of them, which really bothered me. In fact Weir had no problem with Shep taking Chaya all over the place, looking at sensitive equipment, learning they were just a small group, with little defenses. Uh, that seemed just dumb to be telling an alien that you don't really know!

And as for Shep taking off alone in the puddlejumper at the end. . to help her save her people. She has taken care of them for thousands of years - what was his deal? That one line of dialogue has to be one of the worst lines ever written for this show in its first season. And why did Weir let him go? *duh*

During the picnic scene, my husband walked out of the room and asked me to let him know when "Galactica" started. It has to be pretty bad for him to walk out. Every show is allowed their "dog" episodes - I will forget about this one, never watch it again, and move on to better things next week.

[Matt G]

The wierd thing is...a certain individual that I IM with who'll remain nameless reckoned this ep takes the rest of Atlantis to the cleaners! And this guy usually sets the bar higher than I do in terms of ep quality - I reckoned that hot female aside, it was OK but not much more than that.

His take on the comments here were: "Well if the characterisation was way off in this ep that that doesn't say much about the rest of the series"

[Bastet11191967]

Rodney had issues with her, so did Beckett, but Weir didn't listen to either of them, which really bothered me. In fact Weir had no problem with Shep taking Chaya all over the place, looking at sensitive equipment, learning they were just a small group, with little defenses. Uh, that seemed just dumb to be telling an alien that you don't really know!

And as for Shep taking off alone in the puddlejumper at the end. . to help her save her people. She has taken care of them for thousands of years - what was his deal? That one line of dialogue has to be one of the worst lines ever written for this show in its first season. And why did Weir let him go? *duh*

I thought Weir and Shepard was taking quite a chance allowing Chaya access to sensitive equipment and information, because for all they knew, she could have been an agent of the Genii or worse. As for McKay acting like a jerk, he has demonstrated previously that when he gets scared, he tends to lash out, so it didn't seem too out of character for him. (In real life, that is a normal reaction for some people.) I think religion is a very sore subject for him too. I did get a chuckle out out of McKay comparing Shepard to Caption Kirk.

[Hex.FTB.enabled]

It did seem very odd to me that they showed this woman absolutely everything knowing that there was something off about her. I didn't think the ep was terrible (I loved the Capt. Kirk comparisons), but I was left at the end feeling: "ok. so what?" How does this affect, well, anything at Atlantis? She's just going back to her planet, the end? Seems like a poor excuse to give Sheppard someone to kiss. But I loved, loved Rodney. They're really giving the character depth. McKay used to be mildly amusing, kinda annoying-I can only take him for 5 minutes at a time, but now he's becoming a fav character.